LAU geneticist leads revelatory research into Ice Age populations

New genetics research led by LAU professor Pierre Zalloua has confirmed the existence of isolated populations around the Black Sea and the Northern Levant during the Ice Age. Referred to as refugia, these populations lived apart from each other with no contact or inter-mixing for more than 25,000 years. "This allowed for distinct genetic signatures specific to each refugium to accumulate," the researcher explains.

Geneticist and Dean of Graduate Studies and Research Zalloua worked together with a team made up of members from New Zealand's University of Otago, Saint Joseph University in Lebanon, and technology company IBM, to collect and study new genetic data.

"Archeology indicates the existence of populations in certain areas, but it doesn't show that people were isolated," adds Zalloua.

Not only did his team confirm the existence of refugia, but they also traced their migration away from their isolation after the first ice melted some 15,000 years ago by mapping the genetic data against existing archaeological, paleontological, paleobotanical, and climate data [...] National News Agency


Expansions post-glaciaires en Asie du Sud-Ouest - Généalogie génétique 
Les changements du climat ont influencé drastiquement l'occupation de l'Asie du Sud-Ouest par l'homme moderne depuis sa première occupation sur les sites de Skhul et Qafzeh au Proche-Orient il y a environ 100.000 ans. Ces impacts climatiques sur les mouvements de population et sur le développement des différentes cultures ont été fortement débattus. Durant le dernier maximum glaciaire, les conditions ont poussé les populations à occuper différents refuges autour de la Méditerranée, la Mer Noire et le Sud de la péninsule Arabique. Ensuite, le réchauffement post-glaciaire et la révolution Néolithique ont permis l'expansion de ces différentes populations en Asie du Sud-Ouest...